This invention relates generally to wireless switching systems and, in particular, to the assignment of telephone numbers.
In the modern business environment of today, individuals have different responsibilities and work in different job locations that change on an hourly basis or a daily basis. For example, an individual may be a secretary working at a particular desk for part of the day and a librarian working in a corporate library for the remainder of the day. In addition, within a department store, an individual may work in the shoe department for part of the day and work in the household department for the remainder of the day. At present, each of these departments has wired telephones which are permanently stationed in each of the areas where an individual may go to work. Department stores and many other businesses publish to their customers and clients the internal telephone number that may be dialed by an outside individual to reach a particular department. For example, a customer of a department store wishing to call the houseware department simply dials the direct number for that department.
With the advent of wireless telephones, companies have been forced to dedicate wireless telephones for each particular department having the telephone number assigned to that department. This presents many problems for companies. For example, a common problem is for an employee, after their shift is completed, to leave the department still carrying the wireless telephone; hence, the dedicated wireless telephone cannot be utilized by another employee coming on for the next shift. In addition, it is hard to determine precisely how many dedicated wireless telephones are needed for each particular department. Furthermore, if an employee comes into a particular department to lend temporary assistance for a matter of minutes, they must try to find a dedicated wireless telephone assigned to that department. In addition, within a particular department, individual employees may have different skill levels within that department which are different than another department. In addition, an employee may be the supervisor of one department but go to another department and be a mere worker. Such a transition would occur if the second department was in drastic need of assistance. To properly direct calls, the wireless switching system needs to take into account the skill level or managerial level of employees as they enter or leave various departments.
This invention is directed to solving these and other problems and disadvantages of the prior art. According to the invention, when a wireless terminal enters a new location, the telephone number assigned to the wireless terminal is automatically changed to a telephone number assigned to that location based on an assignment level of the wireless terminal for that location. Advantageously, the features associated with the wireless terminal will also be changed to the features assigned to the location. In addition, this invention allows flexibility for the telephone number of the wireless terminal to remain fixed and not to be changed to a telephone number assigned to a particular location. Advantageously, a wireless terminal has a plurality of assignment levels with different assignment levels being utilized for different locations. This allows the user of the wireless terminal to perform different functions within different locations. In addition, each wireless terminal has a personal telephone number assigned to it. The wireless telephone can use either its personal telephone number or the telephone number of the present location for purposes of caller identification during call originations.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of an illustrative embodiment of the invention considered together with the drawing.